AN: here's the first chapter, the one before was actually the prolouge, but I'm not sure this site recognises that. Again, Cosmo and Wanda don't belong to me, they're Butch Hartman's characters. I would put in a long, boring authors note, but I don't know what to write. xD So read on. And review! xD

Chapter 1 - Fire and Blood

Flashback:

"What haunts your every nightmare and lurks in dark hallways? What's waiting but is never there when you dare look? The single most terrifying thing you can think of? The thing that scares you the most?"

His large, green eyes did not blink. Fixed on her rose ones, it felt like he was staring into her soul. The girl shook a little. But she could not, for the life of her, look away.

'You.' she thought.

Wanda Fairywinkle watched the fire burn and eat at the bricks in a terrible passion. Smoke blew out the windows of the blazing building accompanied by vibrant red flames. Together, they danced into the wind, painting the grey sky charcoal and amber in their fury. Blackness above echoed blackness below. They called to each other and the girl with the red lighter in her hand listened, to the wild, fierce yell over the crackling flames. Glass shattered in an upstairs window, bursting from the frame into a million shards of light, reflecting the blaze.

The heat on her face was nearly unbearable, already, half the forsaken building was demolished. Soon it would be nothing but a pile of ash. A pile of nothing. Sirens in the distance shrieked and Wanda knew it was time to go. She turned and ran through the field of grass behind the doomed structure just as two more windows exploded behind her. Ahead, the frosted metal fence stood. She began to climb, using the diamond shaped holes in the fence to inch her way to the top. Small drops of rain pelted her cheeks, running down them, making tracks through the grit from the fire.

Ignoring the red "DANGER" sign hanging near the top of the fence, Wanda leapt down to the opposite side. She trudged across the dusty ground, spotted with rain drops, kicking down stalks of dead weeds. With her broken wing she felt like a human, not being able to fly was horribly degrading.

The doctors said she had gone into 'shock' since the accident. That was why her wing would not heal, it hung limp and useless at her back. In her potential embarrassment, she hid both beneath her clothes. Still, she saw how others stared at her disability to fly. How they were scared of her difference.

By the time Wanda had walked the familiar path, the rain was pounding her like a drum. She pulled the hood of her black raincoat over her lurid pink hair. A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with the sight in front of her, wracked her entire body. The pit churned, as if in agony, sparks of black light sprayed up and were sucked back in. The wind swept up the rain into a pillar of pelting darts, twisting in the entire, mile wide chasm. The very air seemed to be pulled into it, Wanda could see the tug of it around the edges, weird, disfigured and hazy. But it was there.

Swallowing the dryness in her throat, she thought back to the day she had first come here.

Flashback:

"What is it?" terrified, yet curious, the pink haired girl peered over the cliff.

"It's where all the excess magic goes." The boy next to her said, his bright, green hair flailing in the breeze, trying to escape his head.

The two stared down into the pit.

"So, the stuff that no one wants?" Wanda whispered, looking up at the boy for a reply.

With a vacant look in his emerald eyes, Cosmo nodded, "Yes."

The childish innocence she could not return to seemed to mock Wanda from the depths of the vortex. In a sudden burst of anger, she hurled the small object she had been holding tight in her hand into it's heart. With a distant shriek, the blackness accepted the offering as the red lighter disappeared into nothingness.

And the rain poured down.

'you have no choice.'

He watched the crack on the ceiling, lying on his back. It moved slowly across the plaster, little showers of dust rained down occasionally.

'Sure I do.'

'Like what? What are you going to do?'

'I could stay up here and fix that crack.' Cosmo Cosma caught the ball of light in his hand. He flipped it around with his large, green eyes until the spinning made him dizzy. He flung it at the wall opposite. It bounced back and smacked him in the chest.

'But you're hungrier than that, you know you'd rather eat.'

'That's not the point.' he argued silently.

'If you tried to fix that crack, you'd blow the whole roof off, and then you know what would happen.' The flickering light slipped through his fingers like satin. Cosmo wound it around his hands.

"I would not." He said out loud.

'They'll get you either way.'

Rain spattered outside the grimy window, in the distance, a cloud of smoke hung like a blanket. Cosmo slumped against his pillow, his stomach growled. Pushing his shaggy, green hair out of his eyes, the young fairy rose and floated to the door with caution.

'OK.' He thought, 'Lets do it.'

The ball of light, which was currently green as his eyes, floated over Cosmo's left shoulder.

'Go.'

'I'm going!'

Silently, he crept down the stairs, his father was passed out on the moth eaten couch, obviously drunk. An assortment of bottles littered the coffee table. The curtains were shut tight, blocking any possible outside light. The whole living room smelled of booze and cigar smoke. Quietly as possible, Cosmo went past his dad, into the kitchen. He hoped there was something in the fridge. A jar of pickles, some mouldy looking cheese, more empty beer bottles. He grabbed the pickles.

A stirring from the direction of the couch startled Cosmo. The pickle jar slipped from his hands and shattered in a burst of glass and pickle juice on the filthy linoleum.

"Shit!" He gasped. Desperately, the teenaged fairy reached for his pocket. Nothing there. Where was his wand?

With a creak of metal springs, the couch released it's weight.

"What the hell are you doing you little fuck?" Cosmo's father had woken up. Bloodshot green eyes, almost the exact shade as Cosmo's, yet lacking any sort of warmth or compassion bored into him. Oberon Cosma stared at his only son with disgust.

"Get out of my kitchen!" he grabbed the closest thing to him, yet another bottle, and hurled it at Cosmo. It missed, smashing against the cupboard behind him. Cosmo, frozen for an instant, now turned for the back door as another bottle was thrown at him. This time, it hit it's mark, a long, jagged piece of glass caught his cheek, ripping open his skin.

Cosmo made his escape, dodging more objects and ignoring the insults screamed at him by his drunken father. He was used to this. Blood gushed from his wound and mixed with the wet, staining his face red. The air was full of smoke and rain and the dark as Cosmo ran to the place he knew he would be safe.

In the downpour, the reflection of his soul dimmed slightly.

AN: It's getting weirder, isn't it? My writing is like that. I'm creeped out by my own story. Oh, and Cosmo's fathers name came from some Shakespeare play. I know, his dad is horrible, isn't he? But, that's just my idea of what he was like, you never really know on the show. Poor Cosmo. :( Well, better get started on the next chapter, see ya then! Cookies for all who review! XD